


A Lady's Good Graces

by AppleSoda



Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones
Genre: Character Study, Cute Kids, F/M, Fluff and Humor, Gen, Mentors, Personal Growth
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-30
Updated: 2018-08-01
Packaged: 2019-06-18 14:27:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,409
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15487869
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AppleSoda/pseuds/AppleSoda
Summary: Eirika uses a visit to a village after the war to learn a little about how the people of her kingdom see her.





	1. Chapter 1

Eirika noticed the little girl sitting by herself as she was shown through the village’s construction efforts. She was likely no more than ten or eleven and was hunched over by the frame of a burnt-out house, scowling and leafing through the pages of a book that had the corners flipped back and forth so often that the corners had been smoothed or rounded. At her side was what was unmistakably a practice blade at the girl’s feet, ignored.

 

She tapped on the shoulder of the chief, who was ten minutes into an explanation about turnip harvests that threatened to go into twenty-five minutes. “Excuse me for a moment,” she said, her voice all reason and politeness and willing to accomodate the rest of his speech. Buying herself a few seconds, she stole away from her brother and his courtiers, moving towards the ruins of the house.

 

“Is that an interesting book?” asked Eirika. The little girl turned to her, her hair braided haphazardly in bright green ribbons swinging as she focused her attention to the strange woman in red and gold that had suddenly appeared.

 

“Not really, it’s just papa’s suggestion for when to plant and when to harvest from the last ten seasons.” admitted the little girl. “But mama says to not bother her while her and papa figure out how to repair our barn. And I don’t want to play princesses and knights in the meadow with Milly and Jack and my other friends…but I don’t want to tell them I don’t. So I said I had something to read.”

 

“Princesses and knights?” While she generally avoided whatever stories were told about their band after the war was over, there was something frustrated in the girl’s attitude towards the game that picqued Eirika’s curiosity. She sat down next to the child, listening and gesturing for her to go on.

 

“Milly gets to be Princess Eirika, of course. Because her father’s the chief.” The girl pointed towards the older man, who was gesturing energetically with a canvas bag of turnip seeds mid-speech to make a point of some kind. “So we have to sit around and tell her how brave and pretty she is during the game.” She rolled her eyes, and Eirika stifled a laugh. “She likes Patrick, so that makes him Sir Seth, and we all know how that story is going to go in the game. _His_ family’s got a horse.” The girl added the last point to punctuate just how the boy earned the right to playact the Silver Knight.

 

Eirika couldn’t debate the accuracies there. Seth did have a horse, the last time she had seen him, which was earlier that morning while out on a ride through the palace grounds.

 

“And who did Milly want you to be?” She was always interested in learning stories about people in Renais, and this girl and her friends was no exception. Already Eirika was glad that she had skipped fifteen minutes of turnip explanations that she likely knew by heart, from touring other villages and listening to other chiefs pontificate.

 

“The bandit chief, or a monster, or someone else,” sighed the child. “Which is why I’m reading.” She wrinkled her nose. “I’m not getting hit by Milly’s sword again, if I can help it. That leaves a bruise.”

 

Eirika nodded understandingly, crossing her arms in sympathy. “Oh, bruises from sword practice can sting quite horribly.”

 

“Catherine!!!! We’re about to start” Another child’s shout came ringing across the village as the patter of small feet echoed down the tiled path that workmen were still repairing. Both Eirika and the girl looked to the side.

 

“Oh, no, that’s them.” The girl gripped the farmer’s recordbook tight and looking around her vicinity for somewhere to duck under or behind. “What am I going to do?”

 

The idea flashed across Eirika’s mind. “What if I told you, Miss Catherine, that I could help you become a better princess? Better than Milly could?”

 

“How do I know that _you’re_ not a bandit, miss?” Catherine gathered her book and her sword to her chest, looking over at Eirika warily. She liked the girl, who had a bit of brains and a lot of ideas. The palace was too short on people with that combination of traits, as loath as Ephraim was to admit when he was in over his head when it came to governence.

 

The girl that ran towards them had a tablecloth tied around her shoulders like a cape— Eirika’s cape, and a rusted rapier that she had found somewhere on the road in her hands. As she approached them, her gait slowed and her eyes widened at the sight of the tall young woman that stood next to Catherine, smiling serenely with her hand on the hilt of Sieglinde, a legendary blade that could only belong to one person.

 

“Is that…pr…pr…” The

 

“— Princess Eirika. Is my daughter bothering you?” Harrumphed the chief, jostling past the courtiers to joint hem. “Please, they ought to know better than to be bothering you. My apologies…”

 

“There is no apology needed. I was having a pleasant conversation with young Catherine, and would be delighted to see her again. I can send for a knight to accompany you to the castle whenever you wish to visit.” She gave a gentle wave to Milly and a shell-shocked Catherine, rising from her seat and rejoining the chief, giving a courteous nod to the rest of the palace delegation. "The children are a delight, and I'm sure you're glad to have their help in rebuilding."

 

Turning to the still-talking chief, she put a hand on his shoulder and gestured towards the barn that Catherine had indicated her parents were patching.

 

“Now, what was it that you needed from the palace for repairs before winter?”

 

 If the future of Renais was to be bright, she was going to take the moments she could to try to have a little fun with it. A princess she was, and a queen she was in title, but at heart Eirika wanted to make others happy. And ordinary problems like little Catherine's were far simpler than the sort of problems she was used to facing down. For that, Eirika was glad to play the hero that she had always wanted herself to be. 


	2. Chapter 2

 

The castle was probably enormous and endless to someone so small, thought Eirika, watching her young charge for the day glance around the entrance hall. The messenger came to her that morning with a note that Catherine had been dropped off by her knight-chaperone, and brought her out to a receiving room. The Princess was waiting for her with hot tea and a grin on her face that would have been at home right in the middle of Catherine’s village square on a girl selling vegetables or cheese.

 

“I’m so glad you were able to accept my invitation. Why don’t we walk around for a bit, and then I can show you our training grounds where I practice?” 

 

The newcomer into the receiving room wore a dark blue cloak and a tunic trimmed in silver thread, and was carrying a stack of scrolls busily somewhere. But there was no mistaking the knight’s greatsword at his side and the shock of bright red hair atop his head.

 

“Princess, I received several reports of mercenaries attempting to ransack a town near the southern border. They’re requesting permission to—er…” He trailed off, glancing down at the child, who flushed slightly red as she looked up at him, then ran behind Eirika, likely overwhelmed by everything she had seen and the stories she had heard about the Silver Knight.

 

“I’ll take those, Seth. And please, you should try to be a little less—” Eirika took a few of the scrolls, and gestured at something she couldn’t figure out for a moment. “You know— brisk… around my guest?” She patted the girl on the arm gently, and continued to listen to the report. He had unrolled a map and pointed to a structure that looked like a tower.

 

“They’ve taken the magistrate’s son for ransom, and led him into a guard tower, marked here---

”

 

“—Then all that’s left to do is take the tower!”

 

A brash voice rang out through the halls as the sound of loud footsteps resounded across the way. The sentries standing to the side gazed at Ephraim, Crown Prince of Renais, as he walked into the room.

 

Eirika chewed the edge of her lip after thinking for a few moments. “I disagree, brother.”

 

Ephraim scowled slightly, but peered over at the map as well. As Eirika pointed out the specifics of the village, Catherine watched as she worked out options, ticking off good and bad reasons to rescue the boy right away. Prince Ephraim, tall and teal-haired like his sister, was more like the boys in her village that couldn’t sit still. He was as grown as Eirika was, but wasn’t someone that liked to wait.

 

After Seth, there were a great many boys that thought Prince Ephraim was brave. But Catherine wasn’t so sure, because there were a great many boys that got stuck in pigpens when charging towards imaginary Grado soldiers or the unlucky children that were stuck being Prince Lyon, a sorceror that had battled Renais during the war. Though the impromptu council dispersed with plans to regroup and figure out a strategy for the southern village, Prince Ephraim departed with an appreciative clap on his sister’s shoulder, likely storming off to make plans to take the village back singlehandedly.

 

Seth turned to Catherine, his face softening as he realized the circumstances that their conversation had been held under. “My apologies, Miss…”

 

“Catherine,” piped up the child, pitching her voice so that it was polite as when she spoke to the village elders.

 

“Miss Catherine. Forgive me. I have been remiss in attending to anything but dispatches from knights around the kingdom. Anyone that the Princess has shown hospitality deserves the utmost respect.” He closed his eyes and gave a gallant bow, which Eirka knew him to only do to ladies and dignitaries that were sensitive to matters of decorum of the highest order.

 

If he didn’t watch himself, she would soon find herself in competition with just about every woman aged eleven to nintety for his time and attentions . Eirika laughed to herself at the idea, catching his gaze, which had given away from meeting-serious to an easygoing warmth that wrapped itself around her like a familiar blanket.

 

= = =

 

“A war is a very difficult time to be in, Catherine. I truly hope that Renais never knows it again,” Eirika said gravely as they shared a look over the parapets of the castle out onto the kingdom below them. “But during that time, I learned who I couldn’t bear to lose, and make any choices necessary to keep them safe.” On their way up the floors of the castle, they climbed past corridors filled portraits of past kings and queens, stopping at a portrait of her father, happy and holding her and Ephraim at his side.

 

“I think, on occasion, that it is easier to be a knight than to be a princess. Because a princess has to give certain things up, if she’s following the rules of what to do. And that’s probably the hardest part.” Though her steward had said not to touch the portrait, Eirika found herself reaching towards her father, as if his image could recall a little of the man that was in the painting. 

 

The words distanced her from the safety of the castle where she spoke to the little girl, to a time where she and her knight commander had disagreed bitterly about where they would go. No warmth graced his eyes then— just simple, raw desperation— and an anguish that she wasn’t sure how to describe to a girl who had only heard of the night through watered-down stories. 

 

The child wound her short arms around the stack of new books from the library and peered up at Eirika, her eyes large and thoughtful.

 

“Why did you have to keep following the rules, if Grado didn’t?”

 

“I….whew, you’re not really giving me the easy quesitons, are you? Very well.” Eirika took a few of the books from Catherine to carry for her.

 

“Let me tell you a secret,” she said. “I…I still don’t know if it was the right thing, what I chose during the war. There was no certainty that we would win, and the songs and stories turn into one of a princess that had her path set out by what her heart wanted.”

 

“I like seeing you lead,” Catherine answered with a small grin. “You don’t cry as much as the song say you do, well…Not as much as Milly thinks you do, anyways.” The less Eirika knew about how children that weren’t Catherine thought she was like, the better. 

 

“Alright, one moment…. how much crying is in the songs?” Eirika’s eyes narrowed.

 

“Umm, they say you felt like your heart would go to pieces if you couldn’t see Sir Seth again?” Catherine climbed up a few steps and picked an arrow out of a nearby battlement, fletched in bright green. Eirika guessed that Innes had fired it from some target practice or a spar with Ephraim.

 

“Catherine, does my heart look like it’s in pieces?”

 

She looked at Eirika and then shook her head.

 

“Should it be” Eirika frowned. “Well, Renais has lost a lot. Whatever happens to me, if it remains whole, then so is my heart.” It was a question that she wasn’t quite sure what to do with, but even Seth, who had looked as if he wanted to try to take her anywhere but into battle again, had known that the times required someone to lead, and do it brilliantly. And Ephraim couldn’t do it alone. He still couldn’t.

 

“What do you know about hearts, anyways?” She laughed, ruffling the little girl’s hair. “You’ve a whole life ahead of you before you have to think about anything like that.” Helping her down from where the child had stood to get a better look of the kingdom, she lead Renais castle’s smallest guest down to figure out where the servants kept snacks hidden in the pantries, taking the luxury of a few moments before she had to worry about anything of substance again.

 

 

 


End file.
